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Setting Up an eCommerce Site With WordPress

by allinwebit | Oct 18, 2023 | All Posts, Ecommerce

There’s never been a better time to open an online business, and WordPress makes it easy, with an array of tools and themes to help website owners set up a complete eCommerce store for selling physical and digital products of all kinds. Whether you’re an experienced web developer or a complete newcomer to the world of online selling, you can turn your WordPress website into an online storefront in just a few steps, with options to suit every budget.

Why Use WordPress?

WordPress powers nearly a third of the world’s websites, ranging from personal blogs and small businesses to many of the Internet’s top 100 websites. This free and open source site-building platform consists of a set of core code that defines the basic framework of a website, which can be developed in virtually limitless ways to create unique sites of all kinds with thousands of WordPress themes, plugins, and plugin extensions.

The “mix and match” versatility of WordPress makes it possible for users of all skill levels to build a fully functioning online storefront on an existing WordPress site in almost no time, and to customize it for selling all kinds of goods. Because WordPress is the world’s most popular site builder and content management system, users can also choose from a multitude of premium and free WordPress themes and plugins, as well as compatible eCommerce platforms to optimize any WordPress site for showcasing goods, services, and memberships.

Online Storefront Essentials

The configuration of your WordPress eCommerce site depends of course on the nature of your business, your goals, and the kinds of products and services you plan to sell. In general, though, a full-service e-commerce website needs a set of core functions that make it easy for site owners to manage the store, and for visitors to find and buy what they’re looking for. To do that, your WordPress eCommerce solution should offer:

Easy to manage product pages, with options for promoting featured products and special opportunities.
Shopping cart and checkout pages that include essentials like currency converters and shipping calculators for physical goods or download links for digital products.
Secure payment portals that protect buyers’ payment information.
Full customization that reflects the business brand.
Contact features, such as contact forms, live chat, or a support number for handling customer issues and questions.
Mobile responsiveness to reach the growing number of users who shop for tablets and smartphones.

The best eCommerce setup for your WordPress site depends on your budget, technical skills, and the scope of your eCommerce venture, but whether you’re an absolute beginner with no web design skills who is preparing to launch a business or you’re a developer creating a storefront for an established retailer, WordPress hosting can turn your dreams into a reality.

WordPress eCommerce Themes

Themes are a core component of the WordPress system, and thousands of them are available in both free and premium versions from the WordPress theme directory, and from third-party developers all over the world. Themes define a site’s appearance and layout, and some themes are designed to support specific functions, including eCommerce.

eCommerce friendly free themes, like the mobile responsive Shop Isle and The Store, offer users different ways to showcase products, add landing pages and featured product images in galleries, and even run a blog. Premium versions of these and other themes include more features to round out the essentials of an online store, but users may still need to add some essential functions with plugins, such as shopping carts and payment portals. Some, such as the Storefront eCommerce theme, is directly compatible with WooCommerce, the most popular WordPress eCommerce plugin of them all.

eCommerce Plugins

Along with themes and the core code, eCommerce plugins for WordPress round out the list of essentials that make up a site. And like themes, there are countless plugins set to perform specific functions of all kinds on a basic WordPress site. eCommerce related plugins for WordPress range from full storefronts to dedicated plugins that allow you to set up individual features like shopping carts, payment portals, and more.

The most famous WordPress e-commerce plugin is WooCommerce, which powers over 40 percent of the web’s e-commerce community. WooCommerce can be installed on any compatible WordPress site and adds the full spectrum of research related features to a basic site and theme. The free version of WooCommerce offers all the essentials, and the premium version adds additional features, plus extended support.

WooCommerce may be the best known and most widely used WordPress e-commerce plugin, but it isn’t the only one. A large and growing number of other plugins such as WP eCommerce and EStore also add a fully functioning online store to WordPress sites of all kinds. Some, like Easy Digital Downloads, support a particular kind of product or service, while others are designed for building a membership or subscription site.

Integration With eCommerce Platforms

eCommerce themes and plugins work to turn a basic WordPress site into an online store, but it’s also possible to integrate a WordPress site with popular standalone eCommerce platforms, such as Shopify and Ecwid.

Sites like Shopify offer a full-service e-commerce solution that also includes managing all the associated store functions from a single dashboard. That makes these sites appealing to new users looking for a no-fuss way to run a store. But WordPress users can also add the platform’s plugin to an existing site, which adds e-store functionality. Although adding the functions of an e-commerce host to your own site can help to extend the reach of your brand, it can also add additional costs. Although Ecwid is free to set up, Shopify charges a monthly fee to host your shop.

Online shopping is the fastest growing retail sector worldwide, and many users of online retail outlets say they’d never shop any other way. Now, anyone with products to sell can set up an online store – and WordPress makes it easy, with eCommerce options to suit every budget and level of expertise.

To learn more about our web hosting packages, check out our extensive resources on Allinwebit.com.

What Is VPS Hosting?

by allinwebit | Oct 18, 2023 | All Posts, Vps Hosting

For growing businesses who need more hosting features than basic shared hosting, but aren’t ready for dedicated hosting on a private server, VPS, or virtual private server hosting, can fill the bill. Flexible, scalable, and more secure than shared hosting, VPS offers users the experience of a private server with the economy of a shared physical space.

How Does VPS Hosting Services Work?

VPS hosting combines features of both shared and dedicated hosting, designed for those whose sites have outgrown the limitations of a shared hosting environment. This hybrid model uses a form of virtual technology called hypervisor to partition a single server into multiple independent spaces, or virtual machines, each with its own operating system and infrastructure. Although each VPS site on the server operates in isolation, it receives an allocation of the server’s shared resources, which are distributed among all the sites using that server.

A user’s virtual machine can be used to host a single company website, or to host multiple websites under a single account – a strategy that might be used by startup web hosting companies for hosting the sites of multiple customers. But, all sites hosted by an individual virtual machine must still draw a share from the available resources of the single hosting server.

In this way, virtual private server hosting allows users to configure and manage sites independently, as with a dedicated server, but at a much lower cost. In a VPS hosting environment, users can enjoy complete control over virtually all aspects of a site’s features and functions, with better performance and scalability than shared hosting. For many businesses, VPS hosting services may have all the features needed to accommodate growth, without the need for “upgrading” to dedicated hosting at all.

VPS Offers Control and Customization

In shared hosting environments, users typically have relatively limited control over the features and functions of the sites they own. A host’s individual hosting packages can establish which aspects of a site can be changed or reconfigured but, in general parameters, are set by the host, and users typically are not given the level of access needed to configure core aspects of a site’s appearance and functions.

As in all other hosting environments, the VPS hosting provider is responsible for the maintenance of the physical server, as well as for upgrading server software and managing its core resources of memory, bandwidth, and computing power. But, users can take control of all other aspects of configuring and managing their sites.

In VPS hosting, users have full access to the site’s operating system, including unrestricted root access and administrator permissions. That allows site owners with experience in web development and design to configure their sites from the ground up, with the ability to configure the site’s infrastructure and install any software or applications that are relevant to the company’s operations. That might include installing industry-specific security features, payment gateways or apps for protecting consumer information. For those without this level of technical expertise, though, VPS hosting providers typically offer support and assistance for setting up and maintaining sites on the virtual server.

VPS Improves Performance

Sites in a shared hosting environment can be affected by issues involving neighboring sites on the server. Surges in traffic, security breaches, and other events affecting other sites can cause a site to experience slow speeds or downtime – or even crash because of sudden demand placed on a shared server’s resources spread among hundreds or thousands of sites.

VPS hosting improves site performance because it reduces the risk of problems like this, although it doesn’t eliminate them entirely. Because each VPS site is isolated from others on the server, users face a lower risk of “contamination” from a compromised neighboring site. But VPS users still share a single server, even if it hosts fewer sites than a typical shared server would. That means that each account has an allocation of overall server resources, just as in a shared hosting environment. And, in the same way, when another site on the VPS server happens to draw more than its allotted share, that can affect the performance of other sites around it.

VPS Enhances Security

VPS hosting can be significantly more secure than shared hosting, thanks to the virtual partitioning that keeps sites separate. It also has the ability for users to install the kind of security features that are relevant to the site’s specific needs.

VPS hosting providers are responsible for installing and maintaining the essential security features of the server itself, which provides protection against a wide range of web-based cyber threats or prevents cybercriminals from attacking. But, because sites on those servers maintain their separateness, the risk of infections by malware and viruses from an adjacent site is greatly reduced. Users are also able to directly install any type of security and monitoring applications they need within the site itself so that security measures can be customized to suit individual needs.

VPS Can Be Scalable

For users looking for more room to grow, VPS offers a level of scalability that’s beyond the scope of most shared hosting and offers users a smaller slice of a server’s shared resources. With fewer accounts drawing from the resources of a VPS server, users typically have access to more bandwidth and memory. But, those resources are still finite, so a site that experiences rapid growth and a significant increase in traffic may still need to upgrade to another service tier or find another hosting solution, such as a VPS host with larger allocations or even a dedicated hosting provider.

An Economical Solution for Growing Businesses

VPS hosting plans offer an economical hosting alternative for small but growing businesses. With basic VPS plans that can rival the higher tiers of shared hosting packages, VPS offers many of the benefits of much higher priced dedicated hosting services. Within the VPS hosting environment, users can also choose from a variety of tiered plans with varying service options ranging from completely unmanaged to managed services that handle most aspects of a site’s setup and daily maintenance. Within the parameters of the shared physical server, VPS hosting can be upgraded as needed, at predictable monthly rates.

VPS hosting isn’t for everyone. But, this hybrid solution combines essential features of lower cost shared hosting with the privacy and control of higher-end dedicated server hosting to offer growing businesses a flexible hosting option for the present – and the future.

What is Dedicated Hosting?

by allinwebit | Oct 18, 2023 | All Posts, Dedicated Hosting

For first-time site builders and owners of small websites, shared hosting can fill the bill for an affordable price, but that option may not be able to meet the needs of larger, more complex sites and those with high traffic volume. For those users, dedicated hosting offers a scalable, highly customizable alternative that bypasses the limitations and risks of shared hosting in favor of sole occupancy on a server reserved exclusively for a single website.

How Does Dedicated Hosting Work?

In all web hosting models, account holders’ sites are hosted and maintained on the servers of a remote provider that is also responsible for essential maintenance and some site management, depending on the type of hosting plan. To keep costs low, shared hosting providers put many accounts on the same server, where they draw from the server’s shared resources.

In this environment, any site can be affected by the behavior of its neighbors on the server. A surge in traffic on one site can cause others to run slowly or experience interruptions in service and the basic security measures put in place by the provider may not be able to stop the malicious activity that infects sites through shared technology. And, since shared hosting is designed for smaller sites with low traffic, when a site’s monthly traffic volume exceeds a cap set by the provider, the account can be terminated.

Dedicated hosting avoids those issues by providing a more flexible, efficient, and safe alternative for growing sites with an ever-increasing volume of traffic, as well as the established sites of large companies. In this hosting model, a provider makes an entire server and all its resources available to a single client, with varying levels of support and maintenance available depending on the provider’s hosting plans.

Although dedicated web hosting can cost considerably more than basic shared hosting, this kind of hosting environment offers far more flexibility, privacy and user control than other kinds of web hosting solutions. The benefits of dedicated web hosting include enhanced performance, better security, complete customer control, and a spectrum of support services from the hosting provider. If these are the kind of features you are looking for, get started with dedicated hosting today.

Enhanced Website Performance

In a dedicated hosting environment, all resources such as bandwidth, RAM and CPU output on a user’s contracted server are dedicated to supporting that user’s single site. That ensures maximum uptime with no “competition” from other sites on a shared server so that a site’s performance can’t be affected by shifts in the use of those shared resources. With all resources available at all times, dedicated hosting can also offer enhanced speeds and added stability for businesses whose computing needs involve sensitive financial transactions or the handling of personal information.

Superior Security for Unique Needs

Dedicated website hosting avoids many of the security issues that worry users of shared hosting services. Depending on the hosting plan, dedicated hosting users may be able to install security measures designed to meet their specific needs alongside – or in place of – those that are provided by the host. Because sites on dedicated servers don’t share space with others, they face no risk of becoming “infected” through shared technology by malware or malicious activity directed at a neighboring site on a shared server.

Each server used for hosting has its own IP address and, in a shared hosting environment, that IP address is also shared by all the sites, both legitimate and questionable, that are using that server. Because no other sites share a server in a dedicated hosting situation, each site has a unique IP address, which eliminates confusion and adds additional layers of security that can be essential for processing financial and medical transactions.

Flexibility for Customization

Dedicated hosting makes it possible for users to have virtually complete control over all aspects of their sites – or leave some or all of its management in the hands of the hosting provider. With managed hosting plans, the host handles ongoing site management along with maintaining the server itself, while self-managed hosting allows site owners complete control of all aspects of their site, with only server maintenance and support provided by the host. In both models, though, users are free to install software packages and security features of their choice to meet the specific needs of the site and the company behind it.

Dedicated hosting also provides scalability for the life of a site. Though a site can outgrow the limited resources of a shared hosting environment fairly quickly, the resources of a dedicated server make it possible to scale a site to just about any size – and to add the additional features and functionality it needs at every stage of development. Dedicated hosting packages allow for scalability, too, with tiered pricing that reflects added RAM, bandwidth, and other features as needed.

Ongoing Technical and Server Support

Dedicated hosting providers typically offer around the clock technical support from a well-trained staff with the expertise to resolve issues of all kinds – an important aspect of this kind of hosting, since users can opt to handle all aspects of site management on their own. Hosts also provide ongoing server support, including maintenance and installing upgrades and other features as needed for optimum performance and uptime. All costs for maintaining the server are assumed by the provider, but users can purchase and install any software they choose.

Who Needs Dedicated Hosting?

Dedicated hosting is not for everyone. This kind of hosting can be expensive, costing hundreds per month, although some providers offer self-managed economy plans for less. For new users with small sites or longtime sites with small amounts of traffic, shared hosting at a lower cost might be the right choice for both short and long-term needs.

For sites that have, or expect to have significant traffic, dedicated hosting provides the needed resources to accommodate site visits numbering into the millions. Dedicated hosting also supports complex sites that require extensive customization, such as those sponsored by large e-commerce businesses and other kinds of enterprises. This kind of hosting may also be right for sites that demand strict security, such as those involving financial transactions or the handling of medical data and patient information.

Shared hosting options may be all a small site needs for the duration of its life, but with exclusive server resources and extensive user support, dedicated hosting provides the flexibility and scalability that can sustain a website’s growth and development now and for the future.

Is WordPress Only for Blogs?

by allinwebit | Oct 18, 2023 | All Posts, Wordpress

WordPress powers over a quarter of the world’s websites, including many, ranked in the web’s top 100. Although this free, open source site builder was originally designed for blogging, WordPress is now the platform of choice, not only for personal and business blogs but also for many other kinds of sites.

With the help of thousands of WordPress themes, plugins, and extensions, users of all skill levels can build in all the functions they need to create online stores, portfolios, membership sites, professional pages, and more. Versatile, flexible, and endlessly customizable, WordPress isn’t just for blogging anymore.

WordPress Makes Publishing Possible

WordPress was developed back in 2003 as a tool intended for bloggers – a way to make online publishing accessible to everyone, according to its founders Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. That’s why WordPress remains free, an open source software platform that can be modified and shared by anyone in the worldwide WordPress community.

In the years that followed, WordPress was welcomed not only by bloggers looking for flexibility and control in a full-featured content management system, but also by entrepreneurs, creatives, and professionals in fields of all kinds who found that the basic WordPress platform could be adapted to meet the needs of many different types of sites. That’s because the three core WordPress elements – source code, themes, and plugins – can be modified, mixed, and matched to create unique, highly customized websites, even by users with no experience in website development.

WordPress Has Tools for Blogging – and Beyond

Many site owners do use WordPress for blog posts, and the origins of WordPress as a blogging tool is clear in its content editor, which is oriented toward creating text. With a clean, minimal text box that comes in both visual and HTML formats to meet the needs of both new users and experienced developers, the content editor is the key to fleshing out the basic WordPress structure with a full complement of pages, blog posts, and other elements. The basic WordPress content editor reflects its origins as a blogging tool with its array of text formatting tools, but it also offers options for adding images and embedding the video.

The content editor can be extended with plugins that add a variety of other content management tools for further customization options like visual elements through slideshows and galleries. And as WordPress has evolved toward a wider functionality, tools, such as the plugin Elementor and the new block-based editor Gutenberg, allows users to take a more visual approach to create content overall.

The WordPress Code Provides the Structure

The basic WordPress “package” is always free, and it can be downloaded from WordPress.org and installed on any web host. It consists of a set of HTML files that define the core functions of a WordPress site, and that includes the content editor – the essential tool for creating a site’s posts and pages.

In all its forms, though, WordPress remains an open source software, which means that individual WordPress users are free to modify it as needed for their own sites or to share those modifications with others. Experienced web developers can work directly with the source code to add features or alter the appearance of the site through different customization options, and new users can use preset customization features available with WordPress themes and plugins to get the look and feel they want.

WordPress Themes Customize the Look

The WordPress source code establishes the structure and essential functionality of your site, but its appearance is defined by its chosen theme – and there are thousands of WordPress free and premium themes to choose from. Many are available from the official WordPress theme directory, but more can be purchased – or downloaded for free – from WordPress developers around the globe.

WordPress themes allow users to expand the functionality of a site in many different directions, with themes designed for blogging, e-commerce, creative portfolios, and more. New users can customize a theme’s presets through settings on the site’s admin dashboard, while more experienced developers can make changes directly to its style sheets and scripts.

Plugins and Extensions Add More Functions

Plugins are the third essential element of the WordPress blogging platform, and they can be installed in any WordPress site to add niche-specific functions that turn a basic WordPress install into an online store, photo gallery, landing page, or any other kind of business or professional site.

Plugins allow WordPress users to add contact forms, collect money, create social networks, display their social media, and build online magazines. For example, e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce can add a complete online shop to your WordPress site. Gallery plugins allow photographers, artists, and other creatives to showcase their work. Additionally, a variety of business-oriented plugins add functions such as statistics, database management, and other functions for small and large companies.

Plugins can be installed directly into your WordPress theme from the official Plugin Directory, or they can be purchased separately from developers and asset marketplaces, and then uploaded to your WordPress install. Plugins can be customized through their setting options, and premium plugins typically offer user support, tutorials, and other features.

Many plugins also come with the option of extensions: add-ons that provide even more functions on top of the basic ones. Plugins combined with extensions allow users to customize sites even more, so that it is possible to create virtually any kind of site, for any purpose, from a basic WordPress install. As the digital world evolves, new plugins are constantly being developed to add even more options for customizing WordPress sites.
WordPress may have started as a blogging platform to make the tools of online publishing available to anyone, not just experienced website developers, but thanks to its flexibility it has become much more than that. Today’s WordPress users range from newcomers to denizens of the blogosphere, to multinational corporations with complex websites that don’t even include a blog. All of these unique sites are based on the WordPress source code. With the core code files combined with themes and plugins that add the specialized functions you need, your WordPress website can be anything you want it to be – even a blog.

Top Tools for Small Businesses

by allinwebit | Oct 18, 2023 | All Posts, Small Business

Building a robust online presence is a must for small businesses of all kinds, as it offers new opportunities to boost brand awareness, build relationships, and compete in a rapidly growing global marketplace. Many free and premium tools are available to help both online-only entrepreneurs and owners of “brick and mortar” businesses to expand their brand in the digital world, and the list continues to grow. But, which ones make the most sense for your business?

Here’s a look at some of the top online business tools for essential functions to help small businesses grow an effective – and lucrative – online presence.

Build Your Toolkit With Goals in Mind

Hundreds of apps and free WordPress plugins are available to perform just about every kind of business-related task, from scheduling meetings to bookkeeping. Every business has unique needs related to its niche, company culture and mission, and building a “go-to,” kit of online tools to keep the company running smoothly needs to keep those things in mind. In general, though, just about every business needs management tools for organizing finances and handling payments, communication, marketing, and social sharing, and handling documents. These popular online tools for handling those and related tasks are all available in a cloud-based form, so users don’t have to install software on local computers in order to use them.

Financial and Accounting Tools

Businesses of all sizes and types need reliable and accurate ways to track finances and manage taxes, and a variety of online apps exist to fill the bill. The most versatile and user-friendly of these, according to business accounting specialists, is the well-known Intuit QuickBooks. QuickBooks is a one-stop solution for handling billing, preparing taxes and managing day-to-day accounting tasks. It’s available both for purchase in the traditional desktop software bundle or by subscription in the cloud, with monthly plans for users ranging from independent contractors to small business owners and providers of both services and products.

Payment Gateway Tools

For businesses that take online payments for services or products, a secure payment gateway is essential for keeping transactions and customer data safe from theft or compromise. Major e-commerce platforms provide their own payment frameworks, but a variety of free and premium gateway applications with features including SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology and encryption to keep transactions secure, but users can download and install a variety of cloud-based payment portals for taking payments directly from a company website. The best known of these is, of course, PayPal, which offers both personal and premium business versions, along with a variety of other business services such as invoicing. Related products offering secure payment options for credit and debit card transactions include Stripe and Square, with a variety of tiered plans with additional services available.

Communication Apps for Far-Flung Teams

A variety of communication and scheduling apps are available to help company staff stay connected and in sync on projects that involve coordinating the efforts of individuals working in locations around the country – or around the world. Topping the list is Slack, a cloud-based messaging and connectivity app that helps teams brainstorm as well as share documents, images, and video. Slack allows users to create multiple workspaces with direct and team messaging, with a variety of extensions for additional functionality in its tiered plans for business and enterprise users.

For video conferencing and in-person calling, apps such as Skype and Join.me create virtual chat rooms for live discussion and meetings, while GoToMeeting allows users to schedule webinars, online workshops, and conferences with users around the world.

Digital Marketing and Social Sharing Apps

For businesses in niches of all kinds, online marketing through social networks can build awareness and attract new customers. Content creation, social media sharing, and search engine optimization plugins can help boost a company’s online presence and save time and resources. With robust features for promoting and sharing content on social media accounts and publishing sites like Medium, social media management plugins and apps such as Hootsuite and Buffer allow users to schedule content for posting to a variety of social media accounts, along with social media management tools to track engagement and activity. Both platforms offer a free basic version or free trial, with additional tiered plans for more features and business-related services.

Analytics tools can also boost the success of digital marketing, and Google’s suite of analytics and keyword planners provide tools for optimizing your website content and metadata for search rankings, and for tracking user engagement and the performance of different types of shared content. Both are available for free from Google.

Yoast is one of the most famous SEO tools that can help ensure web content such as blog posts or pages are optimized for search engine results. The basic version can be added to WordPress websites as a free plugin, and premium versions with additional features are available from the developer.

Document Sharing and Collaboration Tools

Whether a group is working on a publication or two people want to discuss a memo, sharing documents quickly and easily with all relevant parties is essential for smooth collaboration and communication. With online apps that can be accessed from any device, it’s possible to collaborate and keep projects on track in real time, with no need for downloading, printing, or emailing.

Google Drive/Google Docs is accessible from anywhere, offering options for storing documents in the cloud and allowing for editing and sharing right on the page. Google Docs can also be used as an online writing tool for creating new documents, and cloud storage make it easy to keep and share them. Another efficient and popular cloud-based document sharing tool, Dropbox is available in both free and paid formats, depending on the amount of storage needed, and links to the documents stored there can be shared with anyone.

With cloud-based functionality and free versions and trials, online tools for small business owners can save time, resources, and money. The top online marketing tools for small businesses are scalable, versatile, and easy to use – and no matter what the task might be, there’s always an app to help

Benefits of Shared Web Hosting

by allinwebit | Oct 18, 2023 | All Posts, Shared Webhosting, Webhosting

Small business owners, entrepreneurs, and independent creatives know that a website is an essential tool for spreading their message and building their brand, but the costs of hosting that website can create an insurmountable obstacle for new site owners on a tight budget. Offered by a wide range of hosting providers, shared hosting is an affordable option that lets users set up an online presence quickly and easily. While shared hosting has definite drawbacks, especially for high traffic sites, this kind of hosting is inexpensive, accessible, modestly scalable, and requires little or no knowledge of website design and development.

What is Shared Hosting?

Before we talk more about the most notable shared hosting benefits let’s first what it is by definition. Shared hosting is one of a number of hosting options offered by providers around the world. As its name suggests, in a shared hosting environment multiple websites, potentially thousands of them, are hosted on the same server, which is owned and maintained by the hosting provider. All sites on that server must share the server’s resources, which include bandwidth, memory and computing power, and those are allotted equally to all accounts on the server. Users can set up multiple websites under a single account as long as they don’t exceed the limitations on resources that are set by the provider.

The hosting provider maintains the servers and takes care of security and upgrades, but users are responsible for setting up and running their own sites, usually with installable scripts available from the host or with the help of the host’s support staff when needed. Because shared hosting involves many websites, but the resources of only one server, providers can offer this kind of hosting for extremely low costs – often less than $5 per month on many promotional plans.

Who Should Use Shared Hosting?

Shared hosting packages for these prices typically have minimal features and support services, but users can often upgrade to a higher shared hosting tier that offers added services for additional fees. For some users, shared hosting plans are the only kind they’ll ever need, but a site might “outgrow” a shared hosting situation as it acquires more visibility and traffic, and require more hosting resources than shared hosting can offer, such as managed or dedicated server hosting that reduces or eliminates the sharing of servers and offers a long list of additional features.

Shared web hosting costs far less than those other types of web hosting and allows users on a shoestring to find an online home for their site. But, security risks come with the shared technology and resources on a single server packed with many different kinds of sites. And, what happens with one site on the shared server, such as a spike in traffic that suddenly gobbles up large amounts of computing power, can affect many others with downtime or slowdowns. Still, for new site owners and those with small, low traffic sites, the benefits of shared hosting can significantly outweigh those drawbacks. Here’s why.

Shared Hosting is Affordable

As we’ve noted, shared hosting plans are typically very inexpensive, typically costing only a few dollars per month on a provider’s introductory promotional rates. Those rates typically go up to the site’s standard package rate after that promotional period ends, but even at those standard rates, shared hosting remains the least expensive option for basic website hosting. And while shared hosting generally offers relatively few extra features, it does include the essentials for setting up and maintaining a small website.

Shared Hosting is Accessible

The low cost and easy availability of shared hosting make it possible for just about anyone to open an account, sign a contract and begin setting up a site. This kind of hosting is offered by most general web hosting providers, although it may not be available from hosting providers that are dedicated to serving specific niches and website types.

A new shared hosting account typically includes the basic tools for getting a small site up and running, too. Some, such as one-click installs of content management systems like WordPress and easy website builders like Wix are free and included with a new account, while others can be added for additional fees. Depending on their level of expertise, users can use the host’s built-in tools to develop their site elsewhere and upload it to the hosting account or stick with the site building and content management options offered by the host.

Shared Hosting Can Scale

Shared hosting works best for new sites and small sites that don’t see much traffic. That allows them to remain within the limits established by many users drawing from a shared server’s finite resources and allows sites room to grow – to an extent. Once a site reaches a certain level of monthly traffic or uses its allotted disk space, it may need to upgrade to a different tier of shared hosting or switch to another kind of hosting entirely.

Shared Hosting Doesn’t Require Design Skills

Opening a shared hosting account can be a new site owner’s first foray into the world of website creation – and they may not have the means to hire a designer to create and manage their site. Most shared hosting providers offer basic site creation tools for setting up a small site without the need for specialized website development skills or familiarity with code.

From a central control panel, users can do tasks such as customize the site’s theme and settings and manage its content without any specialized knowledge of web design. Widely used site builders and CMS options also allow more web-savvy users to make more customized changes, as long as they’re within the terms of the provider’s contract.

Although shared hosting users generally set up and manage their own sites, they can turn to the hosting company’s support staff for help with a wide range of problems ranging from basic setup issues to troubleshooting specific problems as they arise. Tutorials and FAQs on the host site can also help users solve problems and make needed changes to their sites. For an additional fee, many providers also offer site setup using a variety of site builders.

Every business needs a website, and there’s a hosting option to meet every need. Shared hosting may not be right for large sites and those with a high volume of traffic. But, because this kind of hosting service is affordable, accessible and even moderately scalable, this user-friendly option offers webmasters on a budget a way to easily establish an online presence.

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